Sunday, October 28, 2012

FROM A VIEW TO A STRETCH

Saturday evening, Laura of Citrus Yoga and Fitness held a free yoga session in a glorious setting on a water side lawn at the Port Motel and Marina in Crystal River, culminating in a beautiful sunset.

I woke up from a nap just in time to drive up and make the starting time, pulled a blanket from my trunk to use as my yoga mat, and joined the group of about 30 others who had already claimed a spot with their more official yoga mats on the large lawn between the hotel, the Ale House restaurant and the waters of King's Bay. We faced the western sky as Laura led beginner (me) and experienced (and some very flexible???!!!) people through an hour or so of various poses to the best we each could do- she seemed to stress that- do what you can do, not anything that is going to make you go beyond what your body can handle. And breathing- always breathing.

During one of the welcome reclining poses, this was my view: I grabbed my camera.

I was disappointed in my breathing. Have been having some strange thing going on with my gut lately that makes taking a deep breath difficult- leads to coughing- and so my usual ability to take good deep breaths has become severely limited and this a just kept rubbing my face in it- until I finally allowed myself to breath twice even when everyone else only breathed once. In large part, that was brought about by Laura's repetition of "doing what you can do".

And despite my myriad aches and pains and trigger points and locked up bits and joints that don't quite work like they should, I actually did pretty well, and at the end of it, I had become noticeably looser and less pained.

We ended just before sunset, and while others all gathered up their stuff and headed out, or chatted away, I sat on my blanket and watched the sky show- it was what I had come for and it was beautiful!